


Home Sweet Home?

by ohclare



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-07
Updated: 2013-04-07
Packaged: 2017-12-07 19:17:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/752061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohclare/pseuds/ohclare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s not that Humfrey doesn’t love his family; he just prefers them on a different continent. But missing the Old Man’s eightieth birthday is just not something that he’s going to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Sweet Home?

**Author's Note:**

> when i say modern setting i mean a modern westeros with technology akin to ours (because i wasn't giving up the hightower) and with both male and female maesters.
> 
> Humfrey's about 23 and Baelor's 55 with everyone else inbetween (i have all the ages and respective mothers written down if anyone cares). on a Tyrell front Margaery's 20 so you can work upwards from there.
> 
> i'm not sure quite what happened but HIGHTOWERS

It’s not that Humfrey doesn’t love his family; he just prefers them when he’s in a different part of the country or better yet a different continent. But missing the Old Man’s eightieth birthday is not something that he’s going to do, and not only because he’d never be forgiven for doing it.

Of course it doesn’t stop six of his nine siblings calling him and double checking that he’s definitely going to be there, just because he has no desire to settle down and be conventional it doesn’t mean he’s flaky too. I mean why shouldn’t he go out and see the world while he’s still young, even if it does mean he hasn’t actually been in Westeros for two years.

He sees the Hightower before he sees the rest of Oldtown, jutting out into the sea and welcoming all the ships into its harbour. It looks exactly how he remembers it, exactly how it’s looked for hundreds (perhaps thousands but history was never his strongest subject) of years. It doesn’t look like home but it looks familiar and it’s strange to have that sensation for once. So many people expect him to feel pride for his hometown when they discover where he’s from but his only pride is in the fact that the work of his family over so many generations hasn’t gone to waste, that Oldtown is still revered as a seat of learning however far he travels (not that he would ever admit that to most of his family, he doesn’t want them to think he’s proud of their history after all).

It’s only when Malora greets him with a grin and a hug as he bursts into her study (because that’s the first place he goes without even thinking about it) that he feels like he’s home. His sister who was more like a mother to him than anyone else and probably the person he loves most in the whole world. And both the reason for why he left and why he feels he has to come back.

She’s not mad, she never has been, but the world doesn’t know how to cope with someone so different from them. She’s a genius really but she has no idea how to deal with anyone outside of her books. Humfrey’s not sure how many fights he got in at school because some idiot decided to make fun of her, they could insult any other member of his family if they wanted but Malora was different. At least in Essos if people know about Malora Hightower it’s because they’ve read one of her books and not because they think she’s some crazy old woman who never leaves the tower.

Sure he was raised by most of his older sisters (apart from Alerie who was already married with children of her own by the time he was born and Denyse who left soon after) but he always looked for Malora who taught him to read and write before any of them and he doesn’t think any of them hold a grudge against him for that.

Of course she tells him off half-heartedly for not settling down with a job but soon enough the two of them are absorbed in the tales he’s learnt while away and his stories of the things he’s seen. It’s only when Rhea (his step mother and the Old Man’s fourth wife) interrupts them by announcing dinner that he realises he’s been back in the tower for hours and is yet to see any of the rest of his siblngs.

Not that all of them have arrived yet anyway. Baelor and Rhonda are there of course but their son Gerold is not (apparently he’s arriving tomorrow; not that Humfrey is that bothered, they had never got along especially when they were both children together and eternally fought); Garth apparently had arrived the day before but he turns up half an hour late and still in riding gear; Leyla and Jon with their two daughters make most of the noise while Alysanne, Arthur and their son Alyn look on with quiet disapproval. It has its own quiet chaos and Humfrey concentrates to talking to the Old Man rather than thinking about how much worse it’s likely to be on the morrow.

The next morning he isn’t surprised to be woken by three enthusiastic children jumping on his bed, although he can’t help but be furious that his sisters didn’t at least ask before they unloaded them onto him. But then again he knows if he complained then they would remind him about the hours of babysitting he owes them from when he was a kid himself; he’s learnt his lesson about that from the last time he complained.

It’s not that hard to steer them around Oldtown showing them all the creepy weird things the maesters keep in the Citadel Museums and then making them guess at where the ships come from by looking out across the harbour. He does hope that they don’t repeat some of the stories he tells them though, he’s not quite sure whether they’re suited for seven year old ears (although probably okay for twelve year old ones so he’ll be okay with Alysanne) but once he accidently started them they weren’t going to let him stop halfway. He sees Sarella half way through the day but she just waves and lets him be pulled off in the opposite direction.

By the time he gets back to the Hightower most of his siblings have arrived, even Lynesse who looks even more Lysish than the last time he saw her (and that was only a few months ago) and seems even more enthusiastic than usual (he might not like Tregar but he has to admit that he makes her a lot happier than Jorah ever did). Only Gunthor is yet to arrive although his wife Jeyne is happily chatting away to her cousin Leonette (he can’t help but wonder if his brother is working late completely on purpose).

If it was possible Humfrey would run away right then but apparently when your sisters haven’t seen you in a couple of years they think they have a right to absorb you into conversations about whether you’re looking after yourself or if you’ve met anyone else nice. He’s tempted to say he’s part of a dothraki harem to shock them but his family really is ridiculously hard to shock and he’s pretty sure that they’re all congratulate him so he just sticks to the truth. (I mean if they weren’t shocked about Lynesse leaving Jorah to be Tregar’s publically acknowledged mistress he’s not quite sure what would).

It’s only when dinner’s announced that he manages to escape to the nephews and niece that he actually likes (in other words the Tyrells, because at least he didn’t have to grow up constantly surrounded by them nor have to babysit them and those are both two very large points in their favour) although Gerold is also at their part of the table unfortunately. He’s not surprised at all to be introduced to Renly considering he’s known Loras to be in love with him for years even if they only actually started dating a few months back (he can still remember Loras calling him up at four in the morning and yelling triumphantly down the phone that Renly was gay before hanging up almost immediately) but he is surprised that Willas finally has a girlfriend (adorably shy and sweet and very clearly a Stark even before she’s introduced by name) and laughs a lot when he discovers that Margaery set them up. It doesn’t take long for all nine of them to be in hysterics and no one bothers to tell them off when there’s so much more noise being made by the little ones (and the big ones too for that matter).

Sometimes Humfrey wonders how his father can deal with so much noise every time more than four of his children are together but he guesses the Old Man wouldn’t have had so many kids if he didn’t actually like it. (Although it does seem to have scared off most of his siblings from having more than one child and he doesn’t blame them at all.)

It’s only when it’s late, he’s far drunker than he should be and in the middle of some argument with Margaery that he feels so suddenly lonely. And he’s not entirely certain why. Margaery blames it on the alcohol and he blames it on their family being so ridiculously close but either way it doesn’t really matter. At least this time when he goes to sleep he remembers to lock his door (and wedge a chair under the handle just in case).

Lynesse manages to get in anyway and one hangover cure later the two of them are out on the rocks for one of her patented ‘serious chats’, not that they’ve ever actually achieved a proper serious chat in all their lives. Instead he looks at his sister (who could almost be his twin despite the seven year age gap) with a serious face and a moment later they’re giggling away about almost nothing. She’s always been the most similar to him with an almost equal distaste for Oldtown (he’s still sure that’s why she married Jorah when he asked because he was her ticket to a different place) and a love for beautiful things (which is why he sort of gets Tregar, who has good looks and beautiful things in abundance). And even if he goes through Lys far more often than he needs to he always denies it’s because he wants to see her, he just wishes she had better taste in men.

And it’s because of Lynesse that he ends up spending the afternoon completely surrounded by his sisters and sisters-in-law. He has no idea where his brothers have run away to but he doesn’t mind it really, he might not have a clue who half the people they’re talking about are but it’s strangely soothing to be surrounded by gossip. Although of course he does have to deal with being their personal slave as well which is most definitely not soothing.

It’s only because it’s the Old Man’s actual birthday celebrations are the next day that they’re all saved another night of loud talking and alcohol. And Humfrey escapes with Margaery to go to the pub (because well her brothers seem much more interested in spending the evenings with their partners than hanging out with his friends). It turns out that Margaery is friends with two of Sarella’s sisters and he tries not to be too put out that she seems more interested in his niece than him. So he focuses on talking to Wynafryd and Armen who are more than willing to talk about the possibility of dragons coming back again (not that he really knows Wynafryd but she’s Sarella’s friend and she’s always had pretty good taste in friends).

He doesn’t know how to respond when Margaery tells him she’s dating Sarella’s sister Nymeria apart from to point out that there’s surely quite a bit of an age gap. He’s not sure why he even bothers when he remembers that only Garlan and Leonette are anywhere near each other’s ages out her brothers. But really he still hasn’t understood why both her and Loras seem to share every bit of their love lives with him (although thankfully neither have ever gone as far as to share details about the bedroom beyond saying how good the sex is). Although he guesses he only really has to worry if his younger nephews and nieces start doing it too (which he’s pretty sure they won’t, if only because he does the over protective uncle act pretty well when he wants).

 

The Old Man doesn’t do small parties. He might not have left the Hightower in twenty years (he’d even married Rhea in the Hightower’s Sept rather than the grand Oldtown one) but he still knew how to throw an amazing party. He had a feeling that every house in the Reach had been invited as well as all the scholars at the Citadel, of course not all of them were coming but if less than two hundred people turned up he’d be surprised. And this wasn’t even the largest party he’d ever thrown.

They started with champagne at breakfast and really the day could only go downhill from there. (Even if people outside the family weren’t expected until after lunch.)

The Old Man didn’t actually take that much part in the afternoon festivities, his part of the celebrations tended to involve gathering around as many scholars as possible for some deep and meaningful chat Humfrey had never had any intention of understanding (although Sarella loved it he knew). Instead he let himself be dragged around by his little nieces who seemed to want to visit every storyteller and singer that had been hidden in all sorts of odd places around the tower; he even let them put tiny plaits in his hair when they got bored of running about. Of course when other people spotted them and Sarella raised a single eyebrow at him he felt like a complete fool but he couldn’t exactly take them out now (at least not without offending anyone).

He regretted it even more when Margaery, Loras and Lynesse saw his hair and undertook the task of teasing him mercilessly over dinner (Renly however just asked whether he could borrow them to plait Loras’ hair too, which thankfully shut him up for a bit at least). It wasn’t as if he couldn’t take their teasing but he still didn’t like it, he’d much rather the teasing was at least spread out a bit.

It was a relief when it was time for the dancing to begin. Perhaps it was seen as a little old fashioned now to have balls in the traditional style but Oldtown was the home of tradition and sometimes it was nice to dance along to song about people from centuries and centuries ago. Although he fully intended on requesting songs from outside of Westeros too, even if he had to sing them himself.

The Old Man started the dancing as ever, him and Rhea showing everyone else up (sometimes Humfrey found it hard to believe that he was over sixty) before gracefully retiring to let the ‘young people’ (his words) take the floor. Although neither of them remained sitting for too long.

Humfrey wasn’t entirely certain of how many people he danced with (or even half of their names) but he danced with all of his sisters, sisters-in-law and nieces at least. He even managed to get Sansa up for a dance despite the look of slight guilt on her face for abandoning Willas. In fact the only person he wanted to dance with and didn’t was Sarella but that wasn’t surprising, she had never danced for as long as he’d known her and he doubted he’d ever persuade her. It was surprising how many girls were suddenly a lot more interested in him now he’d spent time abroad and wasn’t just _that_ Humfrey Hightower.

He danced the most with Wynafryd though, partially because she didn’t really seem to know anyone beyond her small circle of scholars and partially because she was a really good dancer. It was only when she tumbled over in the middle of the dance floor that they stopped and he steered her into a corner of the hall. He didn’t intend to kiss her but they were both drunk and when he found his face only a few inches away from her he couldn’t help himself. She was a really great kisser too.

He’d kissed a lot of girls in the free cities and slept with a lot of them too but he doesn’t sleep with Wynafryd, at least not in that way. Instead they curl up together on his bed and whisper together until they fall asleep.

He borrows a dress from Leonette for her in the morning and pretends that it’s completely normal that he should have a friend stay the night. Of course Margaery does feel the need to ask whether he’s a good kisser and he feels as if he should have known this would happen (to her credit Wynafryd doesn’t blush but simply smiles and says she couldn’t possibly comment) and his two little nieces chant ‘Humfrey’s got a girlfriend’ multiple times until Leyla tells them to be quiet.

He walks her back to her lodgings and they kiss on the doorstep quickly and quietly before anyone realises they’re there.

Most of his siblings leave that day and by nightfall the Hightower is almost silent again with just Baelor, Malora, Lynesse and him left of the ten of them. And he feels as if he can almost breathe again it’s so quiet.

He doesn’t understand why Sarella is so weird with him the next day, why she refuses to talk to him and instead stares intently at her books while he tries to engage her in conversation. So instead he just leaves her and hopes she’ll come around. He knows there’s an exam coming up but he’s only going to be Westeros, let alone Oldtown, for two days more and he wants to spend it with her because he has no idea when he’s coming back.

He kisses Wynafryd again in the corridor and in the back room of the pub and outside in an alleyway and he’s not sure what this is still. He knows it’s nothing permanent and she knows it too but now they’ve started neither of them are quite sure how to stop. They share a bed again and wrap themselves around each other as they smile, talk and occasionally kiss together. It’s an intimacy that he’s never had with anyone but Sarella before and he finds it strangely nice.

Sarella lets him say goodbye to her at least, even if her eyes are full of a venom that he doesn’t quite understand. She tells him that hopefully by the time he’s back again she’ll have finished her chain and he should come seek her out if he can be bothered. He doesn’t know what to say apart from that Oldtown will be strange without her in it. She just squeezes his arm, gives him a strange look and that’s their goodbye it seems.

Parting with everyone else is much easier: he promises the Old Man that he’ll come home more often, Baelor that he won’t get himself killed, Malora that he’ll write her letters full of stories, Rhea that he’ll eat properly, and Wynafryd that he’ll not just disappear but actually call or write to her some time. They give him actual goodbyes even though all of them know it could easily be months before they hear from him again.

It’s only when they’re on the boat and the lights of Oldtown are glistening on the horizon that he tells Lynesse about Sarella’s words to him and she doesn’t seem surprised at all. She just smiles sadly and tells him that he should make more of an effort to keep in contact with his friends. And for the first time Humfrey’s not sure whether he should have run away so quickly.


End file.
